When Andrew Bourget heard about a new data center facility being built in Zurich, he was taken aback by just how much land it would take up, and how few job opportunities it would create. The founder and CEO of Swiss design and build contractor ECCUS quickly realized that insatiable demand for land was a far greater issue beyond data centers. As more companies look to scale up, whether that be housing an expanding manufacturing plant, storing equipment or finding new logistics sites, they need the space to expand – space which isn’t always available or necessarily the best use of land. And that’s what spurred Bourget on to create the ECO-Caverne™.
“With over 30 years in the underground industry, I sought to provide an underground alternative priced on par with a surface solution,” he said.
The ECO-Caverne is an underground industrial and storage facility suitable for various ground conditions and can be built under existing facilities. The aim: to transfer industrial and storage facilities to underground spaces and free up land for nature or other human activities.
ECCUS is using the 3DEXPERIENCE Cloud platform to go from concept to full-scale production of the ECO-Caverne. Bourget chose the scalable, cloud-based solution for its powerful design, geological modeling, simulation and collaborative capabilities. It allows the ECCUS team to model client sites and underground terrain in a matter of hours and create comprehensive 3D models that bring together all documentation and disciplines in one place. ECCUS also uses the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to simulate its integrated thermal management system, which dispenses heat energy inside the storage unit and captures it for use in the buildings on the surface.
As Bourget brings the ECO-Caverne to market, he is excited about the potential of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and how it can help transform his industry for the better. “Any company whose core business is in underground structures needs to pay attention to what Dassault Systèmes is doing,” he said.
Read the full story to discover exactly how the startup uses the 3DEXPERIENCE platform for its vertically integrated product development cycle and is speeding up the launch of its transformative underground storage solutions.